A brilliant portrayal of both human frailty and nobility, and a bitter attack on false social values,The House of Mirthhas been hailed by Louis Auchincloss as 'uniquely authentic among American novels of manners.'
Edith Jones Wharton (1862-1937) was born in New York City into a
family of merchants, bankers, and lawyers. She was educated
privately by tutors and governesses. In 1885, she married Edward
Wharton of Boston; the couple lived in New York, Newport, Lenox,
and Paris until their divorce in 1913, when Wharton settled
permanently in Paris. During World War I, Wharton was active in
relief work in France, and in 1915, she was decorated with the
Cross of the Legion of Honor for her service. Edith Wharton's
earliest stories were published in Scribner's Magazine, but she did
not include these in her first collection of short stories, titled
The Greater Inclination (1899). Her most famous novels include The
House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Fromme (1911), the Pulitzer Prize
winner The Age of Innocence (1920), The Children (1928), Hudson
River Bracketed (1929), and The Gods Arrive (1932). Wharton also
wrote, in addition to her novels and short stories, her
autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934). She died at her villa near
Paris.
Anna Quindlen is the New York Times bestselling author of several
novels, including Object Lessons, Black and Blue, One True Thing,
and Still Life with Bread Crumbs. A longtime columnist for the New
York Times, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize, she has also
published memoirs and commentary such as Lots of Candles, Plenty of
Cake, and several books for children.
Michael Gorra is a professor of English at Smith College. Among his
acclaimed books are Portrait of a Novel- Henry James and the Making
of an American Masterpiece (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for
Biography) and The English Novel at Mid-Century. His essays and
reviews have been published in the New York Times Book Review, the
Atlantic, the New York Review of Books, the Times Literary
Supplement, and the Hudson Review, and he has won a National Book
Critics Circle award for reviewing.
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